Sermon by Jane Larsen-Wigger

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church

June 20, 2010

 

Galatians 2:15-21

Luke 7:36-50

Psalm 5

 

We began reading this letter to the churches in Galatia a couple of weeks ago. It is considered to be one of Paul’s earliest letters—and one of his most important. Besides giving us some autobiographical details about Paul himself, it clearly makes a case for the Gospel of Jesus Christ: the Gospel of Grace that proclaims that we are saved by God’s unmerited love for us shown through Jesus Christ.

 

This is the good news that Paul brought to that part of Asia when he founded those churches. Now he’s a bit worried about what he hears is happening there—seems there are folks, including Peter, whose words and actions don’t seem to be reflecting that message. They are acting instead like they are justified by their own efforts, what they do, maybe even how good they are. He’s worried that they have not only mis-understood the Christian faith, but also haven’t really experienced the free grace of God.

 

I grew up thinking that being a Christian was basically about following rules: "not drinking, not smoking, not gambling. I was good at keeping those rules so figured I was a good Christian. What it really meant was that I trusted what I could do rather than what God could do. It meant that I knew more about the law than I knew about the Gospel of Grace. In fact, I really knew nothing of grace......or of sin for that matter.

 

It was not until I went to college – a Presbyterian college – that I learned about sin.....my own anyway: like the Pharisee in the story Micky read, I had a great understanding of others’ sin—just not my own. Because, did I mention, I was really good at following the rules.

 

But, what Jesus was trying to get the likes of me to understand is that we can’t really ‘get’ grace until we admit our own need for it. And, if we’re so busy trusting ourselves and our efforts and our goodness....well, then we really don’t give God’s grace a chance to "grace" us with its presence.

 

Grace is like that old story about the northerner who comes south for a visit.....goes into a diner and orders a nice big breakfast of bacon and eggs and toast and hash browns. When his order arrives there’s the bacon and the eggs and the toast and hash browns.....but there’s some other goop there too: a sticky white glob of something unrecognizable.

 

"What’s this?" he asks the server, pointing to the glob on his plate.

 

"Oh, that’s grits," the server replies.

 

"But, I didn’t order grits," he says.

 

"Oh, ya don’t order grits.....ya just get grits."

 

But some of us are hesitant to eat them. (Unless they’re smothered in cheese we don’t even touch ‘em.)

 

In the same way, we just ‘get grace.’ It is God’s free gift.

But....we still don’t always take it in –

 

The need to justify ourselves is so ingrained in us – by our upbringing, our culture, even our religion (you have heard of the Protestant work ethic right?). We are surrounded by shoulds and oughts and expectations – that’s where we live - and that’s what we seem to take in. Even if the ‘shoulds’ are things that have good results: like loving your neighbor or feeding the hungry....it gets all mixed up with doing so in order to justify ourselves. Then, our salvation becomes dependent on our efforts and not on God’s. WE become dependent on our efforts and not on God’s. That is sin. [Trusting something, someone else rather than God.]

 

So do our efforts, our works, our actions not matter?

 

Of course not.....they are simply not what will justify us ultimately. And to continue to act from such a place will simply wear us out instead of free us.

 

But, when one acts from a place of experiencing and being surrounded by grace it leads to a different sort of doing. . . less judgmental or pompous. More grateful, humble. Because grace brings a different sort of energy with it – and freedom. And joy. Its source is not the limited energy and goodness of a human creature – but the limitless energy and goodness of the divine creator.

 

What we do then is not simply a defense of our selves but a reflection of the living Christ.

In this particular passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians there’s one little word that all of this pivots on for me. It’s just a lowly preposition. But it shifts the focus.

 

Paul says three times, just in these few verses alone, that a person is justified not by works but by faith. The way the New RSV translates it: "a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. (v. 16)"

 

Where the good news is in those verses comes in the footnotes – and most every commentary I’ve read on this passage:

 

They make the case that it is probably more accurate to translate the preposition not as "in" but as "of."  So it’s not so much that our justification is dependent on our faith IN Christ.....which sounds, doesn’t it, like just more thing we have to do – have faith. Conjure up belief. Instead our justification is dependent on the faith OF Christ.

 

So, our salvation lies not even in our faith – but in Christ’s faith.  "This places greater stress on the work of Christ in our behalf than on our faith in our own behalf." (Preaching the New Common Lectionary, Year C: After Pentecost, Abingdon Press, 1986, page 47)

 

It is this knowledge, that frees Paul - and he hopes all of us – to be able to say, with him, that "it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me....and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."

 

I admit I tend to avoid preaching the epistles, especially Paul’s letters and I think it’s because they just seem so out-there, so full of big theological thoughts about God who is out there too -- hard to understand, hard to get our puny minds around.  And this passage, on first reading, is pretty much in that realm – like he’s talking big, high, far-away concepts.

 

But, in fact, what Paul is doing here is not trying to get our minds around God...but to help us know that God’s around us. He is trying to locate us right where we are—where we really are – which is "in Christ." In Grace. In the amazing love of God made known to us through Christ.

 

Paul knows location matters. That it makes a difference – for us, for the world – that we live IN Christ. That we are surrounded on every side not just by demands and expectations but by the love of Christ; it makes a different that we act not out of our insecurities but out of the faith of Christ. We might actually DO nothing all that differently, but it could be done with more freedom and joy than if we think our life and salvation depends on it.

 

Some of you have joined me in reading the Rule of Benedict this summer. We’re using a version that includes commentary by the Benedictine sister Joan Chittister. In reflecting on the place of communal prayer she writes that "...every life needs points along the way that enable us to rise above the petty daily problems, the overwhelming tragedies of our lives and begin again, whatever our circumstances, full of confidence, not because we know ourselves to be faithful, but because our God is."  (Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages, Crossroad NY, 1992, pages 80-81)

 

Where are such points for you? Where do you "get grace"? What physical, geographic place serves to remind you of God’s faithfulness, God’s love.   A place of grace....

One word – share it.

 

Imagine yourself in that place of grace as Lewis sings — then he’ll invite us to join him.

This is where we live: in Christ. In grace. In unmerited love.  May this grace fill you to overflowing – so our prayers and our lives are expressions of it....

 

Christ beside me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me—King of my heart;

Christ within me, Christ below me,

Christ above me—never to part.

 

(“Christ Beside Me.” Words: St. Patrick’s Breastplate; adapt. By James Quinn. Music: Trad. Gaelic melody. Found in Sing the Faith, Copyright 2003 by Geneva Press.)